


Lifeline

by iloveyourscratchybeard



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Cancer Arc, Episode: s04e13 Never Again, F/M, Missing Scene, POV Dana Scully
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iloveyourscratchybeard/pseuds/iloveyourscratchybeard
Summary: Mulder visits Scully in the hospital in Philadelphia during the events of "Never Again." For Mulder's POV of this same story, read "An Endless Line."





	Lifeline

As much as she wanted to return home, the doctor at Penn Presbyterian had insisted she needed further treatment for her concussion. He requested a CT scan and 24 hours under observation. She had been avoiding that even before she was catapulted into the dirty wall of an apartment in Philly. Since a cancer eating mutant had insisted she was producing the nourishment essential for his full recovery.

She felt it in her gut. She knew she needed to know what she was facing, and had the roles been reversed and it was Mulder who had the bloody nose, she would have insisted he not wait one second to know how they could treat him. But she was frozen. In shock. As if all the horrible evils that had befallen her in the past several years weren’t enough. It called into question every decision she had made, and more so - every decision that she had NOT made. All the life that was left unlived. Things she always thought she would have plenty of time for, suddenly took a forefront in her mind.

How could she tell him?

Of course, he had been oblivious to her plight, rampaging through the office with a one track mind as usual. It was all about the work, all about the quest. She felt at times, like an ornament of the office. Her request for a desk was received with profound confusion. As if the thought never occurred to him. She had tried to open up to him, to find some way to weave the conversation toward what she was feeling inside. Why she had been so distracted. His words cut through her with their sarcasm and their indifference. His files. His office. His work. She was just assigned.

_“Well, maybe it’s good that we get away from each other for awhile.”_

Perhaps they’ve never been further.

 

After the rounds of tests and the brain scan, it was late and she was exhausted. She barely noticed as the door snicked shut, and her hand was enveloped in warmth. He perched at the edge of the bed and gently pushed a strand of hair off her forehead, cupping the side of her head as he went.

“S'okay, Scully. Sleep. I’ll be here when you get up.”

She was too tired to argue and sleep claimed her once more. When she opened her eyes again, daylight was streaming in through the slats of the blinds. Mulder was sitting in the chair, elbows on his knees. His eyes were dark. He knew.

“Mulder, what are you doing here?”

“Philly PD contacted me yesterday. They assumed what had happened was related to the case we were working on. Wanted my insight into matters.”

Scully looked down at her hands, palms up, on her lap. She studied her lifeline. Melissa had always noted the good fortune of her arch. “You have as many lives as a cat, Dana,” she had giggled. Another brush with death. She fought through another hardship only to have something else entirely waiting for her on the other side of those CT scans.

“Scully?”

She dared a glance up at his face. _He knew._

“What- what the hell were you thinking?”

She arched her eyebrow at him.

“I read the police report last night. When I said I hope you took some time to discover something about yourself, I didn’t mean - ” He stopped and bit his lip, returned his gaze out the window. “You stay the night in the apartment of some stranger you don’t even know. You get a tattoo, you….” He swallows. “Your date, I presume?”

“He seemed nice. A bit lost, but I suppose that’s what drew me to him.”

“Or homicidal! Did you know he murdered the woman in the apartment below him? How could you put yourself in that kind of situation?”

How dare he. “And I suppose you’ve never made an error in judgment?”

“Not…. not - ” She can see his anger bleeding through the furrow between his eyebrows. And something else. Betrayal? But he can’t say he hasn’t made the same mistake. She can tell by the way he averts his eyes in shame. There’s something more to that. She doesn’t want to know.

“He listened to me. He wanted to know me.”

Mulder looks like he’s just been slapped in the face. He opens his mouth to say something, perhaps to ask something, but stops himself. She knows she has hurt him, but she’s too numb to care.

“I know you. I want to be - ” He can’t get the words out. He stands quickly and paces the room a few times before stopping at the end of her bed. 

“The doctor said you should be released later this afternoon. I need to head down to the Philadelphia Bureau and wrap up a few loose ends with the Pudovkin case before we head back to DC.”

Scully nods. “I’ll be fine. Go.”

He has more to say. She can see it in his eyes, in the way they are misted over. In the way he stands with his hands on his hips, shifting his weight ever so slightly from foot to foot. He looks so broken. She can’t worry about that right now though.

And then he’s gone.

Her doctor walks in with her CT scan. Her world crashes.


End file.
